Raising Awareness of Diversity and Inclusion in Financial Services
Sponsored by KPMG
New diversity and inclusion standards will drive financial services organizations to enhance internal and thirdparty compliance practices to integrate new diversity and inclusion policies, metrics and reporting. As part of the changing regulatory environment and ongoing reform of the financial sector, financial regulators recently issued Joint Standards that financial services firms may follow to assess, report and publicize their diversity and inclusion
efforts.
The new diversity and inclusion reporting is part of a larger move toward increased transparency within the financial services industry and growing pressure for board members and senior management to lead their organizations in cultural change. The U.S. action also comes amid a global trend toward legislating diversity and inclusion requirements in the financial services industry. Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank or Dodd-Frank Act) required covered regulatory agencies to establish individual Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) to increase diversity and inclusion within each agency and to develop standards for assessing the diversity and inclusion policies and practices of the firms they regulate. Accordingly, six of these agencies published a joint policy statement in June 2015 outlining standards the agencies will use for assessing the diversity and inclusion programs related to the U.S. operations of the entities they regulate as well as in the service providers of those entities. The standards became effective when published, and regulated entities should anticipate reviews of their programs to be forthcoming.